1 Almog, Yosef (Pinchuk) “Yoske” Born in 1923 in Proszciovice, Poland Made Aliya in 1936 Joined the Palmach in 1942, the Palyam in 1943 Underground alias: “Oranov” This is the Way it Was History and Chronology: I was born in a small town near Krakow, Poland, to a Zionist-oriented family, and was active in the Hashomer Hatzair Youth Org. from a very young age. My parents, who were from the petit bourgeois class, were members of the Oved movement and among the founders of our town's Tarbut School, in which I studied. It was at this school that I gained my knowledge of Zionism, modern Jewish history and the Land of Israel. That was in addition to studies in the official Polish school. In 1936, all six members of my family made Aliya to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. I completed my studies in the school for children of workers, and my secondary and technical education at the Montefiore School. In 1938, while I was in the Noar Oved movement, I joined the Hagana in the framework of the Gadna and the following year entered the sea branch of Hapoel Tel Aviv. In 1939 I was accepted into the course for nautical instructors (in the company of others such as Avraham Meron, Miloh Meir, and David Geva (all of blessed memory) and Tzvi Shor, Yehuda Shinitsky, and Moka Limon. Shmuel Tankus (a future commander of the Israeli Navy) was the instructor. From the Palmach to the Navy: In 1942, I joined the Palmach and was accepted into the second course for small boat commanders. This was at Caesarea in April 1943 and was under the command of Yankale Salomon. In January 1945 I entered into the first course for officers which was at the naval school in Haifa and under the aegis of the Technion. This course was led by Shmulik Tankus and Berchik (Dov Magen). When the course was over I began my work in Aliya Bet. In April 1948, after arrival with “Nachshon”, I joined the new Israeli Navy. From “Tiger Hill” to “The Jewish State”, Memoirs: It was the First of September 1939, a Friday, and the Tel Aviv shoreline was packed with people. A group of us kids from the Noar Oved were having an activity of some sort near the “Red House,” not far from the shore in the northern part of the city. At about 2100 hours a ship appears just a short distance from the shore with all its lights blazing. The ship came into shore and started to unload its passengers. Hundreds of people formed a crowd to watch this absorbing spectacle. The bow of the ship was dug into the sand and some people disembarked by themselves and made their way to shore while others were assisted. Then along came the British Police and took the situation in hand. It was only on the following day, during an activity on the Yarkon River, that we 2 were told about the incident of the previous day and the role of our instructors Shmulik Tankus, Berchik, Yaakov Agiov, Catriel Yaffe, Mordechai Lischinski, Menashe Baruch and others. Davidka Nameri wrote about them and called them “the Yarkon Boys”. That ship had been the “Tiger Hill” and it carried 1,417 immigrants. This whole event stuck in my mind and influenced me to join the Palmach and take part in Aliya Bet activities. When the course for naval officers was over I sailed for a while on the “Amos” and later, took part in unloading immigrants at Caesarea. 22 nd November 1945 – the Night of the “Berl Katznelson”: When the immigrants had been helped off the ship at Shefayim, a British destroyer caught the last two small boat loads of immigrants while still in the water. I was in charge of one of these boats. All of us were arrested and incarcerated at the Latrun prison camp. For me and for most of the other Palyamniks, this was our first meeting with the remnant of the Holocaust. This was what was left of the Jews of Greece who survived the death camps. As Alterman wrote: ”They carried the nation on their shoulders” . That is exactly how it was and how we felt. In 1946 I was sent to the Diaspora with false papers. I arrived at the St. Jerome camp near Marseilles. This was the center of the Mosad for Aliya Bet work in France. I was added to the group that prepared ships for carrying the immigrants and was led by Gideon Shochat. Between preparing one ship and another, I was also in charge of several camps in the south of France. One was a camp of young people who had survived the death camps, and another had 300 people, mostly young families from Russia and Poland, also remnants of the Holocaust. They were scheduled to leave on the “Theodore Herzl”. My meeting with these young people and with these families was traumatic and difficult. These Olim regarded us as their saviors. The slightest word we uttered was obeyed immediately. The job of managing a camp added to my self- confidence and was good preparation for commanding a ship afterwards. In Marseilles I met some friends from boyhood days who were also active in jobs similar to what I was doing and that was a pleasant surprise. On 20 th May 1947 I was told by Shmarya Tzameret, who was in charge of all activities in France, that on the 22 of May a ship was to arrive at Port de Bouc. This ship was called the “Northland” and had a crew of Jewish American volunteers. The ship was to sail to the Baltic and take on immigrants from Poland. I was appointed to command that ship. Shmulik Haram was to be my second in command together with Avraham Meron who was also an engineer. Aharon Michaeli and Ptachya Faig were the Gideonim (they were Olim who had volunteered and taken a radio course in Marseilles). The “Northland” had been an ice-breaker in the US Coast Guard. The ship arrived in port as scheduled and 3 the following day we went aboard and were introduced to the captain and the crew. We received orders to leave port as soon as all preparatory work was done, and to sail to Bayonne on the west coast of France, in the Bay of Biscay. Our aim was to prepare the ship to take passengers in a small port that would not attract the attention of British intelligence. Our agent in Bayonne would make contact between us and the shipyard that was to do the work on the ship. The contact between us and the crew of American volunteers was very good. One of them I had met previously on the “Chaim Arlosoroff” when he was navigational officer on that ship in Marseilles. On June 2 nd 1947 we were on our way and arrived at Bayonne on June 12 th . We met the engineer and the shipyard workers and they went about their job immediately. About a week later, another American ship arrived at Bayonne and this was the “Paducah” code named “Angel”. The preparatory work on the “Angel” was also to be done by the same shipyard. The commander of “Angel” was to be Moka Limon and he arrived shortly after the ship's arrival. The crews of the two ships, the American volunteers and the Palyamnikim all worked together and got along very well. The chapter of “The Exodus” caused a change in plans for the “Northland”. When “The Exodus” was returned to Europe, the British government declared that from then on any illegal immigrant ship caught would be sent back to the country from which the ship had come. Following that announcement, the Mosad for Aliya Bet reached an agreement with the Romanian government (with the agreement of the Soviet Union as well), to allow 4000 Romanian Jews to leave Rumania and to sail to Palestine from Bulgaria. The “Northland” and the “Angel” were sent to the Black Sea, to the port of Burgas, Bulgaria in order to load passengers. “The Angel” left on the 4 th of August and the “Northland” on the 28 th of that month and they both sailed from Bayonne to Burgas. We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on the 3 rd of September and as soon as we entered the Mediterranean we were met by a British destroyer that accompanied us for 2,000 miles, from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles. The British studied us and the ship all during the voyage, which was a very pleasant one during that season of the year. The voyage in the Bay of Biscay and along the Portuguese coast had been a very stormy one. Due to the nature and composition of the crew the spoken language on the ship was English. When we entered the Dardanelles the British left us and we continued through the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. On September 14 th we anchored near the port of Burgas until we received permission to enter the port. A pilot had to direct us into the port because it was surrounded by a minefield. 4 On the night of September 22 we started loading immigrants onto our ship. They got off the train that brought them from Romania and moved directly onto the ship. Romanian and Bulgarian guards kept the area of the pier sealed. This was a very moving scene for all of us Israelis and for the American crewmen.